Universal Methods of Design

RESEARCH METHOD

10 Card Sorting

When user comprehension and meaningful categorization is critical, card sorting can help clarify.¹

Card sorting is a participatory design technique that you can use to explore how participants group items into categories and relate concepts to one another, whether for digital interface design or a table of contents. Participants are given cards with printed concepts, terms, or features on them, and are asked to sort them in various ways. One of the most common reasons to do a card sort is to identify terminology that is likely to be misunderstood, either because the terminology is vague or because multiple meanings ...